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Father James E. Groppi (left) and comedian Dick Gregory (center) lead a fair housing march in Milwaukee in 1967. This photo ran in the Dec. 18, 1967, edition of the Milwaukee Journal with the caption "Comedian Dick Gregory, bearded and haggard after 25 days of fasting, joined Father James Gropi and about 230 marchers on Milwaukee's north side Sunday. Gregory has lost 46 pounds since beginning a fast on Thanksgiving Day to protest American involvement in the Vietnam war. He plans to fast until Christmas. Sunday was the 112th consecutive day of open housing demonstrations in the city. Gregory also spoke at a rally where he told demonstrators he had lost 46 pounds."
Milwaukee Journal files

Joined by comedian Dick Gregory, Father James E. Groppi lighted up and started out on a civil rights march Sept. 2, 1967. Groppi and Gregory led the NAACP youth council through the downtown area and, once again, to the south side. There were no arrests by police.
Milwaukee Journal files

Civil rights demonstrators march down N. Water St. toward City Hall on Sept. 2, 1967. Led by Father James E. Groppi (glasses far left) and Dick Gregory (to the right of Groppi in white hat), they circled the building several times. The mayor had left before the marchers arrived.
Milwaukee Journal files

Dick Gregory sits quietly as John J. Spindler, Milwaukee assistant district attorney, reads the charges against him before issuing a warrant charging him with disorderly conduct in October 1967. He was among 11 people who were arrested in the 1400 block of N. 12th st. after refusing to leave the middle of the street and walk on the sidewalks during a civil rights and open housing march.
Milwaukee Journal files

Dick Gregory appears in court in October 1967. He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge, spent a night in jail and was released on $100 bail. He was among 11 people who were arrested in the 1400 block of N. 12th st. after refusing to leave the middle of the street and walk on the sidewalks during a civil rights and open housing march.
Milwaukee Sentinel files

Comedian Dick Gregory speaks to youngsters and civil rights leaders at a "freedom school" at Christ Presbyterian Church, 1729 W. Walnut St., on May 18, 1964. The students boycotted public schools to protest de facto segregation in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Gregory, a comedian and national civil rights leader, made several appearances in Milwaukee to support the boycott. This photo was published in the "Final" section of the May 18, 1964, Milwaukee Journal.
Milwaukee Journal files

Comedian and activist Dick Gregory poses for a portrait during the PBS TCA Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., in July 2012. Gregory, the comedian and activist and who broke racial barriers in the 1960s and used his humor to spread messages of social justice and nutritional health, has died. He was 84. Gregory died late Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017, in Washington, D.C. after being hospitalized for about a week, his son Christian Gregory told The Associated Press. He had suffered a severe bacterial infection.
Associated Press

In the early 1960s, Gregory had established himself as one of America's smartest and most observant comedians. But he also was making his mark as an activist, leading voter registration rallies in Mississippi and taking part in anti-segregation protests in Alabama.

In 1964, he came to Milwaukee to take part in a one-day boycott of Milwaukee Public Schools, organized to protest MPS' lack of action on segregation in schools.

On May 18, 1964, the Milwaukee United School Integration Committee, or MUSIC, sent pickets to 12 MPS schools and set up "freedom schools" at 26 neighborhood churches and centers.

Gregory joined pickets outside the school administration building on W. Vliet St., and wound up talking to students at seven "freedom schools" around town.

"If we are successful with this revolution, people all over the world are going to recognize what we did to the greatest nation of the world without firing a shot," Gregory told students at one of the stops.

Gregory returned to take part in MUSIC's second MPS boycott a year later.

In 1967, when the NAACP Youth Council and other civil rights activists began what became 200 days of marches for open housing in Milwaukee, Gregory was there, too.

Gregory joined the marchers, led by Father James E. Groppi, on the marches' sixth day, on Sept. 2.

"I came here to be with you until it's over, one way or another," Gregory told the marchers, according to a Sept. 3, 1967, Milwaukee Journal story.

Gregory helped lead the marches for more than two weeks, and returned to take part in several more over the course of the following six months. He and 10 others were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for blocking police cars during a march on Oct. 8. (He was later found guilty and fined the maximum, $100.)

He continued to keep tuned in to issues in Milwaukee.

In September 1968, Gregory — at the time a write-in candidate for president — came to Marquette University and spoke out on behalf of the Milwaukee 14, a group of anti-war activists who had seized and burned draft cards from a Selective Service office in downtown Milwaukee.

He often returned to Milwaukee to perform and lecture, sometimes both, and frequently returned to the city for events marking the open housing marches.

"There has been nothing in America that equals what happened here in Milwaukee," Gregory said at a 2007 event marking the 40th anniversary of the marches. "When the rest of the country saw what was going on in Milwaukee, it realized that equality was not an Alabama problem, was not a Mississippi problem. This is an American problem."